Feed mechanism for turret type article inspection machine

ABSTRACT

A horizontally oriented rotary table is provided with clusters of upright articles to be inspected in article chucking devices located in an intermittently operated turret. An improved mechanism is disclosed for feeding the articles off the table and onto a lifting device for insertion in one of the chucking devices and for receiving the articles discharged from these chucking devices to feed the acceptable articles from the turret. The infeed mechanism includes a pocket wheel capable of accommodating articles of various size, and the wheel is mounted on an arm, or lever, for movement of the pocket wheel between an article receiving position over the table and a load position over the lifting device. The article outfeed mechanism includes a positive indexing device for receiving the acceptable articles and advancing them in upright condition to a storage box.

[ FEED MECHANISM FOR TURRET TYPE ARTICLE INSPECTION MACHINE [75] Inventor: I Charles M. Kinsbury, Manchester,

Conn.

[73] Assignee: Emhart Corporation, Bloomfield,

Conn.

[22] Filed: Jan. 26, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 220,837

52 11.5. C1 214/89, 133/1 R, 198/21 D,

209/1117, 214/1 BC, 2l4/8.5 F, 221/266, 356/240 1511 Int. Cl. 865g 59/00 [58] Field of Search 2l4/8.5 A, 89, 8.5 F,

214/1 BC; 356/240; 209/1l1.5, lll.7'

198/210; 221/266; 133/1 R, l A, 8 A

[ 56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,601,616 8/1971 Aichi-ken 209/1 1 1.7 3,613,885 10/197] Rehse 209/] 11.7

lNTERMlTTENT EQ MOTION T 1 DEVICE 1 51 July 3, 1973 Primary ExaminerGerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-George F. Abraham Attorney-John C. Hilton [57] ABSTRACT A horizontally oriented rotary table is provided with clusters of upright articles to be inspected in article chucking devices located in an intermittently operated turret. An improved mechanism is disclosed for feeding the articles off the table and onto a lifting device for insertion in one of the chucking devices and for receiving the articles discharged from these chucking devices to feed the acceptable articles from the turret. The infeed mechanism includes a pocket wheel capable of accommodating articles of various size, and the wheel is mounted on an arm, or lever, for movement of the pocket wheel between an article receiving position over the table and a load position over the lifting device. The article outfeed mechanism includes a positive indexing device for receiving the acceptable articles and advancing them in upright condition to a storage box.

15 Claims, 15 Drawing Figures I To u TABLE 32 1.

PATENTEUJUL 3 I975 S'EUIBFG mar PAIENIEDJUL 3 I973 sum 2 0F 6 FEED MECHANISM FOR TURRET TYPE ARTICLE INSPECTION MACHINE BACKGROUND OF INVENTION This invention relates generally to the inspection of liquid filled containers, such as glass ampoules or vials, for the presence of foreign particles, and deals more particularly with a turret type inspection machine wherein the articles are to be individually handled in chucking devices provided at the various machine stations in the intermittently rotated turret.

One such machine is shown and described in a pending patent application entitled Foreign Particle Inspection Machine" filed Oct. 24, 1969 under Ser. No. 869,l44 and assigned to the assignee herein. As disclosed therein, a turret is provided with a plurality of angularly spaced chucking devices for releasably retaining the ampoules, means being provided for rotating the turret in intermittent fashion so that each chucking device is indexed between a plurality of machine stations with a short dwell interval at each station. A rotary table is provided for storing the upright articles to be inspected, and for advancing them toward an infeed station of the turret. The infeed mechanism shown and described in said patent application includes a funnel-shaped passageway over the rotary table so that the containers are urged continuously toward the infeed station, where a radially reciprocable slide block is provided for shifting each article radially off the table onto means capable of elevating each such article at said infeed station, and in timed relationship with the intermittent movement of the turret, so as to lift each ampoule into a chucking device in the turret. One disadvantage to the above described infeed mechanism resides in the fact that the slide block and means for lifting the container at the infeed station are so designed that in 'spite of being adjustable, there is no provision for maintaining any reference position with respect to which the various components can be positioned when ampoules of different size are to be handled in the machine. The outfeed mechanism of the prior machine does not include any provision for the orderly handling of acceptable articles being discharged from the machine.

It is a general object of the present invention to provide an improved article infeed mechanism for transfer of the articles from the rotary table to a chucking device at an infeed station of a turret type inspection machine, which mechanism is capable of handling articles of various size without necessitating the downtime of the machine which characterizes the prior art apparatus described above.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved funnel defining passageway over the rotary table, which passageway has at least one of its boundaries continuously oscillated by the improved article infeed mechanism to preclude jamming of the articles as they are fed toward the infeed station on the rotary table.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide an improved indexing mechanism for handling acceptable articles after they are discharged from the chucking device, and as such articles are fed out of the machine.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION The present invention is embodied in an article inspection machine of the type wherein articles to be inspected are placed in upright position on a horizontally oriented rotary infeed table, which table is continuously rotated in a horizontal plane so as to feed the articles in an orderly column between an oscillatable island provided for this purpose over the table, and a peripherally extending fence associated with the island and defining a passageway therebetween for receiving the column of articles. Means is provided for receiving the endmost articles in this column, and said means comprises a pocket wheel which is oscillated on an arm or lever so as to move the endmost article in a generally radial direction off the rotary table to a position below a chucking device in the machine turret so that a lift table or plunger can be utilized to raise the article into the chucking device of the machine turret. The pocket defining means comprises a manually indexable wheel, which wheel includes a plurality of pockets for accommodating articles of more than one size. The width of the passageway through which the column of articles is fed is also adapted to be varied without requiring any change in the angular displacement of the crank arm or lever upon which the pocket wheeldevice is mounted. Also included is an improved outfeed mechanism for handling those articles found to be acceptable. Article indexing means being operable to handle these articles in their' upright positions and feeding them into a tote box or tray similar to those used to load articles onto the rotary table.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an end-on elevational view of the overall inspection machine which provides the environment for the invention to be described.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in FIG. I with rectangular outlines shown in broken lines for the placement of trays, which trays can be manually unloaded so as to place clusters of articles for inspection on the rotary table.

FIG. 3 is an expanded view of a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 revealing the drive mechanism for the rotary table, which advances the articles for inspection toward an infeed station of the rotary turret, the drive mechanism for the intermittently rotating the turret with dwell intervals at several machine stations and the drive mechanism for the camshaft for operating the infeed mechanism.

FIG. 4 is an elevational view partly in section, being taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 3 and showing certain details of the oscillating crank arm, upon which the pocket defining device is mounted in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an elevational view taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an elevational view, taken along approximately the same line as the line 4-4 of FIG. 3, but showing the lifting mechanism for raising each ampoule into a chucking device at the infeed station of the machine.

FIG. 7 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 7-7 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 8-8 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an elevational view showing the upper and lower limit positions, in solid and broken lines respectively, of the lifting device for raising the ampoules into a chucking device provided for this purpose at the infeed station of the machine.

FIG. is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 10-10 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 11 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 1111 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 12 is an elevational view taken generally on the line l212 of FIG. 13.

FIG. 13 is an expanded view of a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 revealing the outfeed mechanism for handling acceptable ware being discharged from chucking devices in the rotary turret.

FIG. 14 is a view similar to the left-hand portion of FIG. 13 but showing the setup required to handle smaller sized articles than shown in FIG. 13, such as ampoules or the like.

FIG. 15 is a detailed plan view of one of the outfeed jaws shown in FIGS. 13 and 14.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The overall machine for the inspection of liquid filled ampoules, or vials, is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and is described in detail in the above-identified patent application. A rotary table 34 is adapted to receive upright ampoules to be inspected, and these ampoules may be conveniently loaded onto the table manually from a tote box 12 in which the ampoules are stored in upright positions so that the operator of the machine merely moves then from the tote box onto the rotary table 34 by any convenient means. Three locations for the tote box 12 are shown in FIG. 2, and the machine operator can load articles manually from a tote box or tray located at any one of these locations. The table 34 is continuously driven in the direction of the arrow 35 by suitable means indicated schematically in FIG. 3 as comprising a drive motor 14. This drive motor 14 also rotates a camshaft 16 to be described, and in addition operates an intermittent motion device 18, which device 18 is adapted to rotate a turret 30 in an intermittent fashion, with dwell intervals of predetermined duration at each of the successive machine stations, as shown schematically in FIG. 2 by the locations of eight chucking devices 32, 32. As shown in the aboveidentified patent application, and as will be described in greater detail herein, means is provided for moving the ampoules off the rotary table 34 to an infeed station wherein each article can be raised upwardly into an awaiting chucking device 32 provided for this purpose in the turret.

Once each article 36 has been inserted into a chucking device 32, it is conveyed in the direction of the arrow 31a around the turret through successive machine stations where the ampoule is spun up, and to an inspection station, which may be located diametrically opposite the infeed station. At the inspection station, the liquid contents of the ampoule are still spinning but the ampoule is held stationary while successive video frames are generated by a television camera 136 so as to be compared in logic circuitry (not shown). Downstream of the inspection station an article discharge station is provided for releasing the acceptable articles for transfer to a tote box 12a by means of anoutfeed mechanism 42 to be described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 12, l3, l4 and 15. A positive signal is required from the logic circuitry to so discharge an inspected article, however, for any article not so discharged, is released from the chucking device at the next succeeding station for disposal in a reject chute 44. The reader is referred to U.S. Pat. No. 3,598,907 issued to the assignee hereof on Aug. 10, 1971 and entitled Article Inspection by Successively Televised Images for a more complete description of the logic circuitry which is preferably associated with this particular system for the inspection of liquid filled containers.

The inspection machine shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 includes a fixed housing 10 which houses the apparatus for intermittently operating the turret 30 and for continuously rotating the table 34, and it is further noted that a camshaft 16 is also rotatably journaled in this housing as suggested in FIG. 3 for serving several purposes, as outlined in the copending application referred to above, and also for the operation of the apparatus to be described herein with particular reference to FIGS. 4 and 6 and to FIGS. 12 and 13. Still with reference to FIG. 2, the rotary table 34 is provided with a peripherally extending fence 52, which fence extends around a substantial portion of the periphery of the rotary table, and which fence includes a fixed portion extending from the area of the tote box 12 in the direction of rotation of the table 34, to a fixed block 51. A downstream portion 53 of this fence extends from the block 51 to the infeed station of the turret and the said downstream fence portion is movable from the solid line position shown in FIG. 3 to the broken line position shown in that view at 53a in order to accommodate ampoules or vials of various size. A center island 54 is also provided in the general quadrant defined by the fence portion 53, and this island 54 includes an outwardly facing surface which cooperates with the fence portion 53 to define a passageway for receiving a column of articles as they are advanced to the infeed station of the machine. The island 54 is adjustable in position by means of the hand adjust screw 55 to permit movement of the island 54 toward and away from the peripheral fence portion 53 in order to accommodate articles of various size, and at the same time maintain the path of movement of the centers of these articles on a particular arcuate path associated with a predetermined, and constant radial position with respect to the center of rotation of the rotary table 34. As indicated in FIG. 11, the hand adjust screw 55 is received in a radially elongated slot 1 10in a pivot block 1 12 which is rotatably mounted on an upstanding post 1 14. The upstanding post 114 is carried by the shaft 116 which rotatably supports the table 34. The pivot block 112 has a depending post 118 which is square and is slidably received in a radially elongated slot 120 in the island 54. Thus, the island and pivot block can oscillate on the axis of rotation of the table in a manner to be described even after said island is clamped in the desired position by the adjust screw.

This island 54 together with the associated fence portion 530 are movable toward and away from one another and from FIG. 3 it will be apparent that the fence 53 can be moved between the solid and broken line po sition shown in that view by means of the device 210, as can the island 54 be moved toward and away from the fence by the device shown in FIG. 11, so that the arcuate path of movement of the ampoules, in the single file or column being conveyed to the infeed station, remains at a predetermined radial distance from the center of rotation of the rotary table, as indicated generally by the arcuate reference line 55 in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 shows an adjustment device 210 located below the turret, and including a fixed base 212 which is adjustably clamped to the fixed frame of the machine by a screw 214 threadably received in the machine frame and when loosened, slidably received in the slot 216 of the base 212. A fine adjust screw 218 permits the base to be precisely located with respect to the machine frame. The base 212 carries an upstanding web 220 which supports the end of the movable fence 53, and which web also supports a spring loadedarticle guide surface 222. This surface 222 in cooperation with the fence 53 forms an L-shaped guide for the article being shifted off the table and toward the infeed station. Since the pocket wheel swings on an arc, the spring loaded pad 222 moves first inwardly against the biasing force of its springs 224, 224 and then outwardly to guide the article between the locations 58 and 31 in FIG. 3.

With further reference to FIG. 3, the intermittently driven turret 30 will of course rotate through its predetermined angular displacements, and its associated chucking devices 32 will be periodically positioned at a point adjacent to the infeed station. As the ampoules on the rotary table 34 are conveyed along the line 55, they will be stopped by mechanism to be described so that the center of the endmost article in the column is located at a point indicated generally at 58 in FIG. 3. The intermittently rotated turret 30 and more particularly the chucking devices 32 provided thereon will be periodically positioned at a position, indicated generally by the reference numeral 31, which is located adjacent to and in radially outwardly spaced relationship to the point 58 associated with the rotary table. The relative locations of these points 58 and 31 will remain fixed although articles of various size are accommodated by positioning the fence 53 and island 54 in the manner described above. The handling of articles of various size in a machine of the type described herein is possible through the configuration of the means for shifting these articles radially off the rotary table 34 to an infeed station, or to a position 31 below the chucking device 32 associated with the rotary turret 30.

Turning now to a more complete description of this mechanism for shifting the ampoules off the rotary table and to a position below the chucking device 32 which is so located, a pocket defining device in the form of a wheel 60 is adapted to be oscillated between the solid and the broken line positions shown in FIG. 3 as a result of its location on a crank arm 62. The arm 62 is journaled on a rock shaft 64 and adapted to be oscillated by a second crank arm 66 on the same rock shaft 64 through a push rod 68 as best shown in FIG. 4. It should be noted that the pocket wheel 60 does not rotate except when it is manually rotated for adjustment purposes to position a pocket of predetermined size in accommodating articles of predetermined size and shape, and this angular adjustable movement of the pocket wheel 60 is accomplished by lifting the lever 70 so as to remove the pin 72 from one of the openings 74 provided for this purpose in the pocket wheel 60.

The pocket wheel 60 can thereby be rotated to a different angular configuration to expose a different pocket for accommodating articles of different size after which the pin 72 can be reinserted in a hole in the crank arm and in an associated hole 74 provided for this purpose in the pocket wheel. With the particular pocket wheel configuration shown in the drawing, ampoules or vials having a wide range of diameter sizes can be accommodated in an inspection machine of the type described hereinabove. The push rod 68 is adapted to oscillate, or reciprocate, through a predetermined linear displacement, indicated generally at 69 in FIG. 3 with the result that the associated pocket for receiving the ampoule is adapted to be oscillated through a predetermined angular displacement by movement of the crank arm 62. This angular displacement is achieved regardless of which pocket is being utilized in the pocket wheel 60, and this particular pocket will be seen to move the ampoule being handled from the position indicated by reference numeral 58 to the position indicated by reference numeral 31 regardless of which size ampoule is being handled.

As the endmost ampoule in the column is being shifted radially off the rotary table 34 by the pocket wheel 60, a shoe 76 on the outer end of the crank arm 62 is adapted to engage the next article in the column being conveyed between the fence 53 and island 54 so as to allow it to move, or advance only one-half its body diameter during active movement of the crank arm 62. This latter article will then move the rest of the way into an associated pocket when the crank arm 62 has completed its return movement in the opposite direction. In this manner, the ampoules are systematically accommodated with a minimum of jostling on the rotary table. The shoe 76 also serves to cam the island 54 toward the fence portion 53, at least slightly, during the active article shifting portion of its oscillatory motion, the return movement of the shoe or cam 76 allowing the island to pivot back to the position shown.

Turning now to a more complete description of the crank arm 62 upon which the pocket wheel 60 is mounted, FIG. 4 shows that the crank arm 62 actually comprises an upper portion or free end of a lever as sembly, which assembly further includes a pivoted end 78 to which the crank arm 62 is connected by a second pin 80 and a screw 84. The pin 80 is similar to the pin 72 used to locate the pocket wheel 60 in the crank arm 62, and a lifting handle 82 is provided similar to the handle associated with the pin 72. This pin serves to normally connect the free end, or crank arm 62, of the lever assembly to the pivoted end 78. These portions of the lever assembly, the crank arm 62 and the end 78 are also connected to one another by means of the screw 84. The pivoted end 78 is also attached to the rock shaft 64 by means of the pin 86 best shown in FIG. 4. The crank arm defining portion 62, or free end of the lever assembly, is not pinned to the rock shaft 64 except by the pin 80 referred to above. The pin 80 is in the position shown in FIG. 4 during normal operation of the apparatus, but upon removal of this pin 80, it will be apparent that the operator of the machine can swing the crank arm 62 out of its active position in the event of a jam up on the machine.

The push rod 68 is adapted to be oscillated through the linear displacement indicated generally by the reference numeral 69, through a crank arm assembly, indicated generally at 88 in FIG. 5, which assembly 88 is in turn oscillated by a cam 90 on the camshaft 16. The assembly 88 is thus adapted to reciprocate the push rod 68 in response to a predetermined rise and fall of the cam 90 on the camshaft 16.

As in the above-mentioned copending patent application, the ampoules not only, must be shifted off the rotary table 34 by the mechanism described, but means is also required for lifting the ampoule at the location indicated generally at 31 in FIG. 3 for inserting each ampoule in a chucking device 32 associated with the rotary turret. An improved means for so lifting each ampoule at this location is shown in FIG. 6 and comprises a lift table, or plunger 92, which is movable between the solid and broken line positions shown in FIG. 6 so as to raise the ampoule 36 best shown in FIG. 9, into the chucking device provided for this purpose in the intermittently rotating turret 30. This plunger 92 is provided at the upper end of a vertically oriented push rod 94, which push rod is slidably received in guide means 96. The guide means 96 is mounted in the fixed frame of the machine, and serves to restrict the rod 94 to vertical movement with respect thereto. The

lower end of the guide rod 94 is connected, by means of a pin 98, to one arm 100a of a bellcrank 100. The bellcrank 100 has a depending arm 10017, the depending arm being in turn connected to a push rod 102 adapted to reciprocate between limit positions determined by the shape of a cam 104 provided on the camshaft 16. A cam follower roller 108 is provided for this purpose on one arm 106b ofa bellcrank 106. The other arm 106a of the bellcrank 106 is connected to the opposite end of the push rod 102. As so constructed and arranged, rotation of the camshaft 16 causes the lift table 92 to rise and fall in timed relationship with oscillation of the lever assembly described above with reference to FIG. 4, and in timed relationship with operation of the rotary turret 30 through the intermittent motion device 18 as described with reference to FIG. 3.

FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 show in detail the mechanism for receiving acceptable articles A discharged in the manner described in the above-mentioned copending patent application from chucking devices such as shown generally at 32 in FIGS. 1 and 2. Thisdischarge station is located downstream of the inspection station, as shown in FIG. 13, and each article so discharged drops downwardly onto a plate 130 supported on a resilient pad 132. The pad absorbs the shock of the gravity drop from the chuck 32 and a stop 134 may be used to control the stroke of the plate 130.

Each article so discharged is fed off the plate 130 and to the broken line position shown at A' in FIG. 13 by a limited stroke pusher comprising the nose piece 136 and the rod 138 which is slidably received in a fixed tube 140. This rod is reciprocated through a predetermined stroke to feed the discharged articles by line pressure between side guides 142 and 144 and across a deadplate surface 146 into a tote box 12a, with the articles being maintained in an upright condition as they are so fed out of the machine. The side guides 142 and 144 are adjustable to accommodate articles of various size, and the stroke of the pusher rod 138 is also adjustable in a manner to be described. FIG. 14 shows the side guides moved inwardly to define a narrower passageway for the smaller articles 36, 36. The inclined slots 148, 148 in these side guides receive clamping devices 150, 150, which devices are threadably received in the fixed table therebeneath. The nose 136 of the pusher is so shaped as to be suitable for use with articles A, A or articles 36, 36 and any size article therebetween.

Each side guide, 142 and 144 carries a pivotally mounted jaw, 152 and 154 respectively, which jaws are spring loadedto the solid line positions shown in FIG. 13. Thus, as the pusher moves an article A to the position A, these jaws will be spread apart to their respective broken line positions momentarily to allow the articles to be positively indexed downstream.

The entrant and exit ramp surfaces are angularly related so that articles moved by the pusher cannot back up toward the pusher in the event of a jam up or the like. FIG. 15 shows one jaw 154 and its mounting to the side guide 144. A mounting block is attached to the side guide 144 and carries a rock shaft 162. The jaw 154 includes article engaging entrant and exit angularly related ramp surfaces 153 and 155 respectively, which surfaces are defined on the jaw element itself. This element is supported on a bar 164, which bar is adjustably clamped to a U-shaped support member 166 by means ofa lock screw 168 slidably received in a slot 170 in the bar 164 and threadably received in the U-shaped support member. This permits the normal position of the jaw element to be preset to accommodate articles of any size dropped from the chucking device at the discharge station.

As mentioned above, each jaw is spring biased toward the solid line positions shown in FIG. 13 by means of a coil compression spring 172 acting between the U- shaped member 166 and the mounting block 160. A stop pin 174 may be provided to define this normal position for the jaw elements. Thus, these jaws 152 and 154 are positioned by placement of the side guides, and also by means of the adjust screw 168. A limit switch 176 is arranged to close in response to each indexing movement of the jaw 154 caused by passage of an article being fed downstream to the passageway defined by the side guides 142 and 144, and this switch is provided in circuit with the counter or the like to yield a continuous reading of the number of articles passing the inspection criteria.

Finally, the means for reciprocating the pusher rod 138 will be described. The camshaft 16 rotates a cam 104 which cam engages a cam follower roller 182 on one leg 184 of a bellcrank pivotally carried on rock shaft 186. The bellcrank includes a second arm 188 which is connected to one end of a tension spring 190, the other end of the spring being connected to the fixed frame of the machine as shown at 192.

The bellcrank arm 184 is connected by a clevis to a link 194, which link 194 is in turn connected to a second clevis 196. The clevis 196 is carried by a screw 198, which screw 198 can be adjustably clamped to a pivotally mounted depending lever 200. The upper end of the lever 200 has a slot 204 which receives a cross pin 202 in'a slide block 206. The slide block is bifurcated, as shown in FIG. 13, to receive the upper slotted end of the depending lever 200 and the cross pin 202 extends through the slot 204 to impart linear reciprocable movement to the rod 138 in response to oscillation of the lever 200 and its shaft 208. The lever 200 has an arcuate slot 201 which permits the clevis 198 to be adjustably mounted thereto in order to permit adjusting the stroke of the pusher rod 138 as described hereinabove to accommodate discharged articles of various body diameters. The slide block 206 has a depending portion which carries a roller 207. This roller is slidably received in a slot 205 to prevent rotation of the rod 138 and to assure that the article engaging nose 136 is restricted to translational movement only in response to oscillation of the lever 200.

I claim:

1. In an article inspection machine of the type wherein articles to be inspected are placed in upright positions on a horizontally oriented rotary infeed table, and wherein these articles are adapted to be individually held in chucking devices for movement through discrete stations in a rotary turret, the improvement comprising passageway defining means associated with said infeed table for providing a column of articles adjacent the periphery of said table, pocket defining means for receiving the endmost article in said column, means for shifting said pocket defining means radially of said table to move said endmost article off said table and to a position below one of said turret stations, and lift means for raising the article at said one turret station to load said article in one of said chucking devices, said pocket defining means including a manually indexable device defining a plurality of pockets for accommodating articles of more than one size,

2. The combination defined in claim 1 wherein said means for shifting said indexable pocket defining device comprises a crank arm oscillatable about a vertical axis, and wherein said device comprises a wheel with pockets defined in its periphery, and means for releasably retaining said wheel in a particular orientation on said crank arm to present a particular pocket to the endmost article in said column when said device is in its active position.

3. The combination defined in claim 2 wherein said means for oscillating said crank arm on said vertical axis comprises a vertical rock shaft, cam means for oscillating said rock shaft, said crank arm comprising a pivoted end attached to said rock shaft, and a free end connected to said pivoted end for normal oscillatory movement therewith, said wheel being carried by said free end and said free end of said crank arm having an article engaging shoe adjacent the pocket of said wheel which is in the active position for restraining the next article in the column of articles as the endmost article is so shifted, whereby said shoe occupies an inactive position when said pocket is in its article receiving position.

4. The combination defined in claim 3 wherein said pockets of said indexable pocket wheel are semicircular in contour to receiving articles of generally cylindrical body shape, and wherein said shoe on said free end of said crank arm is so arranged with respect to the peripheral portion of said indexable wheel as to allow said next article to advance one half its body diameter before being received in the semi-circular pocket, said next article being received in said pocket when said shoe returns to its inactive position.

5. The combination defined in claim 4 wherein said free end of said crank arm is connected to said pivoted end by an easily removable pin, said free end and pivoted end of said arm also being connected to one another by a pivoted connection which permits the free end to be swung away from the cam operated pivoted end of the rock shaft in the event ofjam ups of articles in the machine.

6. The combination defined in claim 5 wherein said passageway defining means associated-with said rotary table comprises a peripheral fence and an island having an outer surface which cooperates with said fence to define a passageway having a width equal to the body diameter of one of said articles.

7. The combination defined in claim 6 further characterized by means for adjustably supporting a portion of said passageway defining fence for limited movesageway defining island from the center of rotation of 1 said rotary table whereby the outer surface of said island can be adjustably positioned with respect to said movable fence portion to vary the width of said passageway without varying the path of movement of the column of articles being fed into the pocket which will receive the endmost article when the pocket wheel device is in its active position.

9. The combination defined in claim 7 wherein said movable fence portion extends circumferentially along approximately one quarter of the periphery of said rotary table, said fence portion being movably supported at one end, and said opposite end being spaced some degrees from said one end of said fence portion, said opposite end being L-shaped, the leg of said L-shaped end portion defining a guide surface for the article being shifted by said pocket defining device whereby said leg guide surface automatically moves toward and away from the periphery of said pocket wheel device during shifting movement of said indexable pocket wheel device.

10. The combination defined in claim 6 wherein said island is pivotally supported at the axis of rotation of said table, and wherein means is provided for oscillating said table toward and away from said fence to facilitate the flow of articles to said pocket wheel.

11. The combination defined in claim 8 wherein said island is pivotally supported at the axis of rotation of said table, and wherein means is provided for oscillating said table toward and away from said fence to facilitate the flow of articles to said pocket wheel.

12. The combination defined in claim 11 wherein said means for oscillating said island comprises said article engaging shoe, said shoe also serving to cam said island toward said fence portion during said article shifting movement of said crank arm.

13. The combination defined in claim 1 including means for receiving articles discharged from said turret at a discharge station, said means being further characterized by an article receiving pad below said discharge station, a pusher for urging each article off said pad, means for moving said pusher in synchronism with movement of said pocket defining means and said lift means associated with feeding articles to said rotary turret.

14. The combination defined in claim 13 further characterized by indexing means for positively feeding discharged articles out of the machine by line pressure of subsequently discharged articles, said indexing means comprising a pair of spaced jaw elements, and means biasing said elements to normal positions wherein said pusher can urge articles therebetween only by overcoming said biasing means.

15. The combination defined in claim 14 further characterized by passageway defining means downstream of said jaw elements, said passageway defining means confining the discharged articles to movement in upright configuration, and said means as well as said jaw elements being adjustable to accommodate articles of various size.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3 ,743 123 Dated Julv 3 1973 Inventor-(x) Charles M. Kingsbury It is certified that error appears in the above-idefitified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Inventor's name, "Kinsbury" should be --Kingsbury--.

Col. 3, line 29, "then" should be -them--. 3

C01. 9, line 56, delete "of" first occurance a nd substitute Signed and sealed this 9th day of April 197M.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWAI-RD I LFLETCHEILJR. C. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents :ORM po'mso (m'sg) I USCOMM-DC 60376-P89 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFIC E ISIS 0-366-334. 

1. In an article inspection machine of the type wherein articles to be inspected are placed in upright positions on a horizontally oriented rotary infeed table, and wherein these articles are adapted to be individually held in chucking devices for movement through discrete stations in a rotary turret, the improvement comprising passageway defining means associated with said infeed table for providing a column of articles adjacent the periphery of said table, pocket defining means for receiving the endmost article in said column, means for shifting said pocket defining means radially of said table to move said endmost article off said table and to a position below one of said turret stations, and lift means for raising the article at said one turret station to load said article in one of said chucking devices, said pocket defining means including a manually indexable device defining a plurality of pockets for accommodating articles of more than one size.
 2. The combination defined in claim 1 wherein said means for shifting said indexable pocket defining device comprises a crank arm oscillatable about a vertical axis, and wherein said device comprises a wheel with pockets defined in its periphery, and means for releasably retaining said wheel in a particular orientation on said crank arm to present a particular pocket to the endmost article in said column when said device is in its active position.
 3. The combination defined in claim 2 wherein said means for oscillating said crank arm on said vertical axis comprises a vertical rock shaft, cam means for oscillating said rock shaft, said crank arm comprising a pivoted end attached to said rock shaft, and a free end connected to said pivoted end for normal oscillatory movement therewith, said wheel being carried by said free end and said free end of said crank arm having an article engaging shoe adjacent the pocket of said wheel which is in the active position for restraining the next article in the column of articles as the endmost article is so shifted, whereby said shoe occupies an inactive position when said pocket is in its article receiving position.
 4. The combination defined in claim 3 wherein said pockets of said indexable pocket wheel are semi-circular in contour to receiving articles of generally cylindrical body shape, and wherein said shoe on said free end of said crank arm is so arranged with respect to the peripheral portion of said indexable wheel as to allow said next article to advance one half its body diameter before being received in the semi-circular pocket, said next article being received in said pocket when said shoe returns to its inactive position.
 5. The combination defined in claim 4 wherein said free end of said crank arm is connected to said pivoted end by an easily removable pin, said free end and pivoted end of said arm also being connected to one another by a pivoted connection which permits the free end to be swung away from the cam operated pivoted end of the rock shaft in thE event of jam ups of articles in the machine.
 6. The combination defined in claim 5 wherein said passageway defining means associated with said rotary table comprises a peripheral fence and an island having an outer surface which cooperates with said fence to define a passageway having a width equal to the body diameter of one of said articles.
 7. The combination defined in claim 6 further characterized by means for adjustably supporting a portion of said passageway defining fence for limited movement toward and away from said island outer surface to accommodate articles of various size in said passageway.
 8. The combination defined in claim 7 further characterized by means for adjustably supporting said passageway defining island from the center of rotation of said rotary table whereby the outer surface of said island can be adjustably positioned with respect to said movable fence portion to vary the width of said passageway without varying the path of movement of the column of articles being fed into the pocket which will receive the endmost article when the pocket wheel device is in its active position.
 9. The combination defined in claim 7 wherein said movable fence portion extends circumferentially along approximately one quarter of the periphery of said rotary table, said fence portion being movably supported at one end, and said opposite end being spaced some 90 degrees from said one end of said fence portion, said opposite end being L-shaped, the leg of said L-shaped end portion defining a guide surface for the article being shifted by said pocket defining device whereby said leg guide surface automatically moves toward and away from the periphery of said pocket wheel device during shifting movement of said indexable pocket wheel device.
 10. The combination defined in claim 6 wherein said island is pivotally supported at the axis of rotation of said table, and wherein means is provided for oscillating said table toward and away from said fence to facilitate the flow of articles to said pocket wheel.
 11. The combination defined in claim 8 wherein said island is pivotally supported at the axis of rotation of said table, and wherein means is provided for oscillating said table toward and away from said fence to facilitate the flow of articles to said pocket wheel.
 12. The combination defined in claim 11 wherein said means for oscillating said island comprises said article engaging shoe, said shoe also serving to cam said island toward said fence portion during said article shifting movement of said crank arm.
 13. The combination defined in claim 1 including means for receiving articles discharged from said turret at a discharge station, said means being further characterized by an article receiving pad below said discharge station, a pusher for urging each article off said pad, means for moving said pusher in synchronism with movement of said pocket defining means and said lift means associated with feeding articles to said rotary turret.
 14. The combination defined in claim 13 further characterized by indexing means for positively feeding discharged articles out of the machine by line pressure of subsequently discharged articles, said indexing means comprising a pair of spaced jaw elements, and means biasing said elements to normal positions wherein said pusher can urge articles therebetween only by overcoming said biasing means.
 15. The combination defined in claim 14 further characterized by passageway defining means downstream of said jaw elements, said passageway defining means confining the discharged articles to movement in upright configuration, and said means as well as said jaw elements being adjustable to accommodate articles of various size. 